Last Sinner here. The October anime season has started, meaning stupidity will be on a peak within the anime world for the next few weeks. So it’s time to pull no punches and reveal the abnormally stupid activity of the last week. Just remember if you ended up on this list – I didn’t put you on this list! YOU put you on this list!

#5 – To start things off, it’s yet another dating service fiasco. Yes, another! But this one is even more shameful than last week’s Tiger & Bunny ploy. This week’s is designed for K-ON! fans in search of a potential partner. Males fork out $78 while the ladies need only fork out a meagre $13 to meet up at an Italian restaurant for refresments and dessert. To make things worse, the dating service is freely admitting they are in desperate need of women for the event. People – the moment you make your event sound desperate is as much an alarm bell for the guys to avoid rocking up as well as the girls! Instead of sounding desperate, why not build on the classy setting K-ON! fans dig? Hold a cake styling seminar. Maybe a tea ceremony. Or let the ladies loose on guitars for a few minutes each and have some karaoke to boot! K-ON! fans thrive on aesthetic pleasure. If you’re sounding desperate, you’re freely admitting there virtually will be none!

ANTA BAKA?!

#4 – Next on the list is SHAFT’s favourite go-to author for high sales material – NisiOisin. Yes, it seems after Bakemonogatari became the #1 series in the 2000 onwards era for average sales per volume, NisiOisin will now be a constant source of material for SHAFT. Particularly since Nisemongatari, which is a sequel to Bakemonogatari, has had the green light lit for production in 2012, on top of Kizumonogatari getting a film production. Okay, really SHAFT?! Are we going to see an endless chain of sequels from this guy for the next 10 years?! How is this supposed to be helping anime evolve or attract new fans when all you’re doing is the same old, same old to satisfy a fraction of the existing fandom?! Seriously, are we supposed to worship Shinbo if he’s got one good trick that he keeps repeating over and over via this guy?! Then again, it worked for Hideaki Anno and ‘The War’…wait, why am I saying that?!

ANTA BAKA?!

#3 – At Number 3 comes a very chilling grab for cash that makes me wonder who would burn that much cash on it. Japanese media company Bandai Visual celebrated the 30th anniversary of the classic science-fiction manga Akira by authorising the vv the signature red jacket of the main character Kaneda. The jacket is made from oil-softened cowhide leather and comes in Japanese sizes medium, large, double-large, and triple-large. The problem is theLaLaBit Market site is retailing for $910. I mean, c’mon! 1k after shipping for a fan jacket?! You could buy some top class clothes at that much?! Hell, I’m sure there’s better cosplay outfits at that price! Why on earth is old school fandom so blatantly overpriced?! Hell, K-ON! fans are getting encouraged to buy $50 items from boutique stores to get free K-ON! merchandise. Stop driving the veterans away from anime fandom!

ANTA BAKA?!

Now for a little reprieve from the stupidity as I hand out the ‘Anti-Baka Mallet Shield Pass’. If the bearer of this pass should ever find themselves in mortal danger from mallet-wielding yanderes, just display this pass – and you shall be spared! The inaugural winners of this pass are the Japan Tourism Agency of the Japanese government. Japan is aiming to restore foreign tourism in the wake of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake by offering free airfare to 10,000 overseas tourists next year. The agency will mainly accept applications online, and if an applicant’s travel plans meet the program’s criteria, the agency will sponsor the applicant’s round-trip airfare to Japan. The purpose of the program is to have participants spread the word of their travels online and, by extension, the safety of visiting Japan now. The agency is allocating 1.1 billion yen (about US$14 million) from its requested 2012 budget for the program. Now THERE is initiative! Well well, fellow anime fans! If you’ve ever been hoping of being able to afford to visit Japan, here’s your chance! Kudos, Japan.

Now back to the stupidity!

#2 – Now it pains me to do so, but due to proper hygeine standards, this week’s runner-up place must go to a former noitaminA show in Moyashimon, a tale about a guy who could see microbes – which looked like mini-plushies. Said microbes are now available in a bath set being made by Kodansha. Aka as sponge toys. Now – after being informed by female friends about the danger of yeast ever getting near their downstairs department, am I the only one thinking there’s a potential epidemic of poor hygeine south of the waistline?! Yeast and the downstairs department are a recipe for disaster! And I bet the Moyashimon crew won’t be cleaning up that mess!

ANTA BAKA?!

#1 – And the pinnacle of stupidity for this week goes to TV Tokyo, after they announced that Series 2 of Squid Girl would be forced into a hiatus for two weeks due to ‘circumstances at the TV station.’ It was soon revealed the reason was TV Aichi and TV Osaka, the other two networks airing the show, started their broadcasts two weeks after TV Tokyo and needed to catch up. Hence the delay for TV Tokyo’s broadcast. So before you Squid Girl fans go ‘What the squid?!’ and start wreaking havoc on the face of the planet when you find your favourite fumbling, shrimp-loving protagonist is gone for two weeks, there is a reason for it. But a stupid one! Honestly, this is the 21st century! You had months to plan out the scheduling to be synchronised, TV Tokyo! But I’ll be lighter than last week’s #1 victim! Here, enjoy a barrage of the Anti-Baka Mallets from Sanae from being parted from her obsession for a fortnight along with ever other squidding fan! And someone get lif support ready for kiddtic when he hears about this, because he’s bound to be squidding crushed when he hears about this! Seriously, TV Tokyo, lift your game!

BAKA!

And that does it for this week! Until next time, folks! Try not to be stupid in your fandom or creative pursuits.

Last Sinner here. Now we all know that the world of anime can be quite insane at times, as well as its fans. But usually it’s within the realm of humour and the like. But sometimes things go just WAY too far to be acceptable and needa good mashing from an Anti-Baka mallet. Tsundere-wielded mallets optional. Take the following with a light-hearted approach – you have to poke fun at the industry sometimes, as well as the fandom. Just remember, those that made the list – I didn’t put you on this list. YOU people put you on this list!

Let the mallet wielding begin!

#5 – At Number 5, we have a rather inexcusable exploitation of the Tiger & Bunny fandom with a dating service being set up, specifically targetting the T&B fanbase. Now dating services targetting otaku and fans of a specific show are nothing new. I don’t have anything against Tiger & Bunny – what I DO have something against is the way the dating service is set up! Firstly, the women involved only pay a measly $39 to take part while the guys fork out $120 to be able to speak to the people of the other gender involved! Wow, some service! When you’re paying 3 times what the other gender is paying, you’d better hope the candidates are damn good quality! As for refreshments, tea and a bit of cake are all they get! But that’s not my main problem with this service. My problem is that the dating is straight! We’re talking about the Tiger & Bunny fandom here! What should be going on is the women get to pair up the guys involved! That sounds far more like T & B fandom, not to mention Pixiv since it’s practically been T & B central for the last 6 months! Honestly, Aellura, properly target the fanbase! And if you need more women, just go ask the Pixiv community, I’m sure they’ll be willing to contribute!

ANTA BAKA?!

#4 – Moving on to Number 4, we find another case of misproper use of a character in advertising. Akikoroid-chan, Vocaloid’s latest synth chick, is the mascot for the LAWSON convenience store chain, acting as a spokesperson on social media sites for LAWSON and their NicoNicoDouga channel. But they’ve gone too far this time with their latest role for dear Akiko. The convenience chain franchise is holding a contest for lyrics to a new song Akiko will sing to advertise deep fried chicken! Honestly, fried chicken?! Look, I get it’s the 25th anniversary of your stores selling fried chicken and congrats, by the way. But a Vocaloid character advertising fried chicken?! How does that fit in with her? How will it make her stay cute if people sing about how greasy, succulent and lip-smacking good it is?! She’ll be more like a pornstar with those kind of lyrics! Honestly, Miku sporting a leek was genius. But fried chicken is not cute. Nor is it conducive to your mascots keeping their trim and cute figures! It’s a good thing Akiko can’t eat, because her fans won’t be staying slim! Show some responsibility to your own characters and your customers, LAWSON!

ANTA BAKA?!

#3 – The Number 3 spot today hosts a long-running Shounen Jump title. Bleach is already a majorly troll title thanks to the antics of author Kubo Tite, but the anime version’s latest antics have set a whole new low for the title. Now we all know the odd error slips through in a lot of anime, but when an entire frame still has the production directions visible, one wonders what those animators are doing! It’s bad enough Bleach has been run well past its course like so many other long-winded titles, but this sloppy behaviour takes the cake! If you’re going to troll people as to why they’re still watching, try to be subtle about it. Don’t give them crystal clear reasons to walk away for good if you still want to make money!

ANTA BAKA?!

#2 – The first runner-up position in the ‘Anta Baka?!’ race goes to some chilling behaviour by anime apparel suppliers Cospa. In the July season, there was an anime called Ro-Kyu-Bu, about loli girls playing basketball. I didn’t even watch one second of it. The behaviour of a friend of mine talking about it plus hearing that damn opening song too much permanently warded me off that danger zone. But Cospa felt it was necessary for the fans to proudly show their love of lolicon in public with their T-shirts with the message ‘Primary School Girls Are Great!!’. Now another online retailer, ANIMATE, decided to cancel their version, which allows the general anime community to breathe a sigh of relief knowing someone has the brains to not give the general public more reasons to hate anime fans in general when it’s a twisted minority getting us this heat. But Cospa decided to go ahead anyway and produce the shirt’s message in an English version! Wow, now you’re not even letting the language barrier save the sorry clowns who read this, Cospa! Now we’ll have people around the globe announcing their love of underage-ness, which is the last thing we need! Someone call up Chris Hansen so he can track these sorry people down and show them up! Cospa and anyone who buys that shirt – way to fail!

ANTA BAKA?!

#1 – And the inaugural top spot on the ‘Anta Baka?!’ report would probably have been the T-shirt stupidity in most weeks. But in the last week, one certain anime fan made the entire world feel better about themselves after what he got busted for! 22-year old Chinese national Xiran Zhang , a first year student at Canterbury University in New Zealand, made the glaringly stupid mistake of bringing graphic adult anime with him from China. Now the problem is not that it was adult, it was actually what was going on! All 10 titles found on Zhang contained scenes of rape, abuse and bestiality! Wow, Zhang, way to go! Good luck getting around Canterbury without getting glares of doom and eternal hatred coming your way! Having rape and bestiality pinned to you for eternity just shot you down for life, fool! Furthermore, name one woman who actually will want to have anything to do with you knowing you condone such acts! But most of all, the entire sheep population of New Zealand should be living in fear! They’re in mortal danger from Zhang! Whatever sentence is laid down on this clown had better include a restraining order that doesn’t allow him anywhere within 5 kilometres of any sheep – alive or dead! Clearly anything is game for Zhang so measures must be taken to prevent the livestock of New Zealand and the world from being infected with whatever has Zhang off his rocker! What extreme stupidity, Zhang! Now stand still and don’t squirm! You’re the first victim of the Over 9000 Anti-Baka Mallet! Delivered to you by a horde of yanderes that love knives!